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RESURRECTION 



OF 



THE BLUE-LAWS; 

OR, 

MAINE REFORM IN TEMPERATE DOSES. 



BEING A DISCUSSION OF THE PRINCIPLES, MORAL, POLITICAL, 

AND CONSTITUTIONAL, INVOLVED IN THE PROVISIONS OF 

THE LIQUOR BILL, BEFORE THE MASSACHUSETTS 

LEGISLATURE DURING THE SESSION OF 1852. 



BY A PRIMITIVE WASHINGTONIAN. 



« Tell 

Why thy canonized bones, hearsed in death, 
Have burst their cerements I Why the sepulchre, 
Wherein -we saw thee quietly inurned, 
Hath op'd his ponderous and marble jaws 
To cast thee up again I What may this mean, 
That thou, dead corse, again, in complete steel, 
Eevisit'st thus the glimpses of the moon, 
Making night hideous ? "— Shakspeare. 



SECOND EDITION, 



BOSTON: 
PRINTED BY WILLIAM CHAD WICK 

1852. 



« RESIST WITH CARE THE SPIRIT OF INNOVATION UPON THE PRINCIPLES OF 
YOUR GOVERNMENT, HOWEVER SPECIOUS THE PRETEXT." 

Washington's Farewell Address. 



THE MAINE LIQUOR LAW. 

CHAPTER I. 

The Assumption of Arbitrary Power as an Instrument of Reform. 

The advent of this child of fanaticism in Massachusetts, and 
several other States, is another striking evidence that political wis- 
dom is not easily taught from history or coeval example, hut still 
is, and forever must he, the result of experience. Notwithstanding 
the vital sacrifices which have attended its growth, and the fiery bap- 
tism which must await its adoption every where, this Upas of the 
hack-woods seeks to plant itself here upon the very grave of defunct 
Puritanism, that the ashes of bigotry may nourish and sustain it. 
The enormity of this example is more to he deplored, as it comes from 
a quarter whence we might have anticipated enlightened and practi- 
cal legislation, "We did not expect a stab at our liberties from Brutus, 
and our sister State has already placed us under many obligations, 
which this evil example may operate in some measure to cancel. We 
confess, with lively gratitude, to her numerous favors. To her people 
and productions Massachusetts owes much of its prosperity and domes- 
tic happiness. Among the most enterprising and intelligent of our cit- 
izens may be found her sons, and among the most beautiful and ac- 
complished of our females, her daughters. She is a mine of native 
beauty and intelligence, and her gems are scattered — " shining with 
conspicuous light " — not only along the shores of Massachusetts Bay, 
but far and wide throughout the sunny South and the far West, con- 
stituting a fraternal tie, more potent than our Federal Union, and 
uniting her in bonds indissoluble with every member of the confed- 
eracy. But ambition as a law-giver can never add to her laurels, 
nor increase our obligations, and we can only hope that she will 
hasten to retrace the false step, which has fastened the imputation 
of anti-republican legislation upon her character, and thus make 
the only honorable reparation to herself and sister States. 



HH'o'to 
2 .IVY j 

In common with many others, who believed that a Massachusetts 
Legislature, elected under whatever party auspices, could not fail 
to possess the candor and independence to decide upon the merits 
of any measure of public policy which might be submitted to them, 
irrespective of party or personal considerations, we have been pained 
to observe the persistence which has been generally manifested, in 
blending this question with party issues and destinies, in which the 
interest of some of our legislators is evidently too deep to be less 
than personal. But since the debates upon the bill have had refer- 
ence, in a great measure, to objects foreign to those contemplated 
by the petitioners for the law, the necessity of full and general in- 
formation in regard to a measure so important in all its bearings 
upon the rights and interests of society, renders it the duty of the 
press to diffuse all possible light upon the subject; so that, if our 
representatives have not the moral courage to meet the question 
boldly and unconditionally on the merits of this law, as a fit and 
practicable remedy for the evils of intemperance, their constituency 
may at least be able, when the functions and responsibility of legis- 
lation shall be imposed on them, to decide it intelligently for them- 
selves, — and whether they will surrender, even to the demands 
of misguided philanthropy, those social rights which alone distin- 
tinguish them as intelligent freemen from the serfs and vassals of 
despotism. And if, in what may follow, an humble individual, who 
has fought in the ranks of the Washingtonian army, may now ap- 
pear arrayed on the side of the opponents of the Maine liquor law, 
it is hoped his position may not be misapprehended, inasmuch as it 
is not because he loves the cause of temperance and sobriety less, 
but that he loves the cause of civil liberty more, and will not con- 
sent to open a door to legislation whereby that liberty may be in- 
definitely abridged, or perhaps ultimately subverted. 

" Can the provisions of the Maine liquor law be enforced in Mas- 
sachusetts ? " was the first question asked in our Legislature, upon 
the reception of the " mammoth petition," and its consideration has 
engrossed a large share of the discussion upon the bill since it was 
reported in the Senate. This question implies at least a doubt or 
misgiving in regard to the popularity of the measure, which, if well 
grounded, must be a fatal objection to its enactment. But the ques- 
tion cannot be regarded as material to the argument, since a law 
which may be enforced is not necessarily a popular or efficient one. 
It is the province of true legislative policy to ascertain, not 
merely whether public sentiment will sustain a proposed law, but, 
first of all, whether the public interests demand it, and further to 
understand that these interests can never be advanced by partial 
legislation, or by the sacrifice of individual rights, however small, 
to subserve moral ends, however great. It is not enough to be satis- 
fied that the sentiment of a community will endure the operation of 
a law, without complaint or revolution ; nor is the ascertained fact 
of a popular majority in favor of any moral principle a conclusive 



evidence of its popularity as a law. A popular and efficient statute, 
(especially in criminal jurisprudence,) must harmonize with the 
great aggregate of the intelligent public mind,^ and must do no vio- 
lence to the private rights or moral principles of any respectable 
portion of the community. 

What though it were already demonstrated that a majority of the 
people are in favor of the provisions of this bill as first reported, 
unpruned of the least of its enormities — would this fact, abstractly 
considered, be sufficient reason for its enactment ? If so, why have 
we constitutions for the limitation of law and the protection of 
individual rights ? Our Legislature is not invested with the law- 
making prerogative merely to consult the will of the majority ; they 
have higher purposes to subserve, in attaining the ends of justice 
and equal rights, in protecting the interests of the weak as well as 
of the strong, and in guarding the rights of the minority from pop- 
ular innovation. The minority, however meagre, have rights which 
may not be wrested from them ; the majority are neither absolute 
in power nor infallible in judgment. Tyranny is equally odious 
and unjust, whether exercised by the imperial despot or the popu- 
lar majority. The principle which lies at the foundation of this 
bill — the absolute right of government to control the appetites, 
opinions and occupations of the free citizen, is the same in essence, 
and exercised for the same general purposes, as that against which 
the popular masses of Europe have long struggled in vain, and 
against which the American people, in the last century, struggled 
successfully — the principle of absolute power, exercised for the 
attainment of an assumed necessary object. Say the despots of the 
Old World, " We cannot govern our subjects as the best interests of 
the nations require, unless we govern absolutely, and without refer- 
ence to popular rights." So say the fanatics who would thrust this 
sumptuary law upon us, — " We cannot subdue intemperance as 
effectually as the public interests require, unless we exercise the 
absolute power of prohibition, without reference to incidental pro- 
scription, or the necessary infraction of individual rights." The 
people of Europe, as far back as the record of history extends, have 
struggled against absolutism, for limitations of monarchy, and 
for chartered rights. How humiliating the spectacle — how little it 
speaks of human progress — that, in the maturity of the nineteenth 
century, the people of New England are called to resist so bold an 
innovation of the same principle upon our constitutional rights ! 

The friends of this bill, not content with the slow and laborious 
process of moral suasion for the suppression of intemperance, have 
determined upon a summary experiment for reaching the evil, and 
are apparently regardless of consequences, so long as their ends are 
even partially attained ; however dear the victory, it must be achiev- 
ed at any price — even if, in the strife, our civil liberties are tram- 
pled in the dust. What though the use of ardent spirits is a custom 
time-honored, interwoven with all our social relations, and sanction- 



ed by the honest convictions of a large and respectable portion of the 
community — though their manufacture and sale are closely blended 
with other industrial interests, which, if this fall, must fall with it — 
though private property must be confiscated and destroyed without 
remuneration — though homes are outraged, places of business haunt- 
ed by legal spies, neighbors set at enmity, intemperate passions stir- 
red up, hostility and contempt for the laws engendered, and social 
strife and civil discord reign — though virtue bleed with vice, and 
friend fall with foe, still the blow must be struck. " We will root 
out the tares ," say they " and if the wheat is torn up with it, why, 
that is but an effect incidental to necessary reform, and the end 
must justify the means ! " They start in this career of legislation 
upon the well-grounded presumption, that the evil lies too deep in 
the constitution of society to be eradicated by compulsive remedies 
which are not harsh and indiscriminating ; strictly prohibitory laws 
will not reach it, unless framed and enforced in a spirit of tyr- 
anny which must infringe the plainest principles of civil liberty. 
Hence, to effect something in the way of reform, they aim in this 
bill to be tyrannical. As one of its most zealous advocates in the 
Senate has significantly urged in debate, the law must be tyrannical 
to effect its object ; and he deprecates any amendment which shall 
divest the bill of this potent characteristic, as impairing its efficiency. 
He undoubtedly thinks, the more of this tyrannical spirit is infused 
into it, the better it will operate, — and we would respectfully sug- 
gest for his consideration, whether an amendment, substituting capi- 
tal punishment for the breach of its provisions, would not be an 
important improvement upon his plan of legislation. 

But we have yet to learn that arbitrary laws, whether emanating 
from a monarch or a popular majority, may ever prove an efficient 
instrument of moral reform. Unrestrained volition listens to the 
voice of conscience and reason, but shrinks from compulsion, and 
snatches the forbidden fruit. Unsuspected integrity seeks no oppor- 
tunity to do wrong, but, under a surveillance which attaches suspicion, 
it hastens to verify the implication of guilt. Sumptuary laws have 
been repeatedly prescribed in England and other foreign countries 
for the same specific purpose, and as often repealed, after a disastrous 
experience, which has proved them worse than useless — an experi- 
ence by which we may profit, unless we choose, at a price greater 
than the evil of intemperance, to purchase it for ourselves. Even 
the history of legislation in our own country and State furnishes 
illustrations of the fact, that, even when exercised within constitu- 
tional limits, the popular will (so often mutable and impulsive,) is 
no unerring guide for legislation, and that the majority may be 
unjust, even to themselves, and may sacrifice their own cause, how- 
ever meritorious, by indiscreet efforts to compel their fellow-citizens, 
who sincerely differ from them in matters of conscience, to come up 
to the standard of their convictions. Such a majority, which abuses 
its privileges, are soon supplanted in their proscriptive career ; but 



they fall not alone — their cause falls with them, and it falls lower 
than the level at which unaided public sentiment sustained it. The 
odium of such legislation reacts with tenfold energy upon the oppos- 
ing principles of vice and virtue, and while virtue is degraded and 
despised for the errors of her misguided champions, proscribed vice, 
like a canonized martyr, is exalted to the heavens, and reigns and 
rules triumphant over the passions of the people. 



CHAPTER II. 

Prostitution of the Total Abstinence Cause to the Subserviency of Party 

Purposes. 

Again, the humiliating attitude in which the friends of total ab- 
stinence are placed, by bringing their cause within the sphere of le- 
gislation, would seem to be a sufficient argument against the expe- 
diency (not to say the propriety) of mingling questions so purely 
moral and delicate in their nature as that of total abstinence, with 
the issues, plots and counter plots, which constitute the machi- 
nery of partisan tactics. Legislators, with few exceptions, are po- 
litical aspirants, acting not merely with reference to the permanent 
welfare of society and the State, but especially the approbation of a 
constituency upon whose favor are based their hopes of future ad- 
vancement. Political ambition, with its canvas spread to catch the 
changing breeze of popularity, is at best a perilous craft to bear the 
interests of moral reform, and the folly which would confide them 
to such guardianship hardly deserves a better fate than the ship- 
wreck which is but too sure to await it. It is not the province of 
the statesman or law-giver to guard the morals or chasten the appe- 
tites of the people — these delicate offices are confided to other and 
peculiar hands — his study is political economy, and the conserva- 
tion of those civil rights which the indiscreet philanthropy of the 
advocates of this law seek to infringe and violate. No matter how 
sublime the principles, or how divine the objects of a moral ques- 
tion, if brought into the political arena, (as every question must be 
when submitted to the legislative function) it is at once bereft of 
its lofty attributes, and the height and grandeur of its moral aspect 
is but the measure of its political degradation. 

Thus the total abstinence reform, seeking compulsive aid at the 
hand of our Legislature, becomes (alas ! for the dignity and purity 
of its objects) reduced to the level of a political element — it is new 
stock for the manufacture of political capital — a new instrument to 
subserve party purposes. No member will give a vote or say a word in 
its favor, to the prejudice of his party or his personal popularity. 



Party tests are at once applied to it ; it is weighed, measured and 
gauged, not according to its moral, but its political advantages, and 
Senators ask, not what will be its effect upon the public welfare, in- 
dependently of us ? but, how will it affect our constituency towards 
us ? And thus, chained to the car of demagoguism, it is apparently 
doomed, either to perish at once in its degrading predicament, or to 
perform for a season the miserable drudgery of party service. 
Those who have heard or read the recent debates in the Massachu- 
setts Senate, upon this bill, will not fail to appreciate the truth of 
these observations, and the votes given upon the main question, in 
that body, (with a few most honorable exceptions) show conclu- 
sively the rigid adherence to party interests which governs the ac- 
tion of our Legislature upon it. 



CHAPTER III. 

Dangers of Irresponsible Legislation. 

As an illustration of this subserviency to party purposes and per- 
sonal popularity, I need only refer to the amendment which has 
been adopted in the Senate, providing for a suspension of the law, 
by a popular vote — which is in effect merely shifting the responsi- 
bility of its adoption from the Legislature to the people, and must 
have the effect of securing more votes for the bill than its unaided 
merits would otherwise command. Whether it is constitutional or 
not, whether sanctioned by precedent or not, the amendment is at 
best a cunning but cowardly device to evade legislative responsibil- 
ity, and establishes a precedent which is liable to the gravest ob- 
jections. By enacting it with this proviso, should the law meet with 
popular favor, our legislators will appropriate to themselves the 
meed of popular approbation ; but otherwise, they will shake off the 
odium which would attach to its unconditional passage ; and if 
ever, hereafter, its reminiscences shall arise, like Banquo's ghost, 
to haunt their troubled spirits, they will exclaim, with Macbeth, 
"Thou canst not say /did it! Never shake thy gory locks at 
me ! " 

But wherein consists the propriety of referring this question to 
the people ? It is not the province of the people to legislate ; 
they have delegated this power to their representatives, who have 
superior facilities ' for understanding their interests, and in whose 
judicious action and public spirit they generously confide. Every 
year they enjoy the opportunity of reviewing the acts of their pub- 
lic servants. Why, then, if the principle of enforcing total abstin- 
ence be a fair and legitimate subject of legislation, and such legal 



compulsion is deemed requisite to the public welfare — why take 
this extraordinary precaution of submitting the question to the 
people ? Or, if the element of popularity is the only thing to be con- 
sidered in framing laws for the government of our Commonwealth, 
why not refer every bill, without regard to its abstract merits, to 
the same tribunal? As one of the people, we earnestly protest 
against this irresponsible mode of legislation, both in general and in 
particular. Its general effect must be to convert our Legislature 
into a school of fawning sycophants, studying, not the public interest, 
but solely the art of pleasing their constituents, who, in their turn, 
would be justly led to distrust both the intelligence and patriotism 
of their representatives. Its particular effect in this case must be, 
to impose upon the community an infamous and impracticable 
statute, without due consideration of its merits or consequences. 
The very anxiety of our legislators, to shuffle off the responsibility 
of enacting this bill, plainly implies their doubt as to its being a 
subject within the ordinary scope of legislation. Indeed, one Sena- 
tor, the other day, (in the simplicity of his mind, but the corruption 
of his heart,) while declaring his firm conviction that the bill was 
unconstitutional, at the same time avowed his willingness to vote 
for it, provided it should be referred to the people for ratifica- 
tion — in other words, he was willing to sacrifice the most sacred 
rights of the minority, by imposing on them an unconstitutional 
law, provided he might thereby please and gain the approbation of 
the majority. By adopting this amendment, a full investigation 
of the subject, in its manifold bearings upon our social economy, 
either by the Legislature or the people, is at once precluded, and we 
shall perceive, perhaps too late, that the question has been decided 
irrespective of its merits. Many of our honest representatives 
(not to mention those who are ready to sacrifice their better judg- 
ment at the shrine of popularity) will thus heedlessly be led to 
support the bill — who would otherwise oppose it, upon mature in- 
vestigation — presuming the people w^ill investigate the subject for 
themselves ; while the people, confiding in , the fidelity of their rep- 
resentatives, and presuming the subject has received all due con- 
sideration in the Legislature, will be led to sanction the law, regard- 
less of its ultra and revolutionary character. And thus, between 
a misplaced confidence on the one side, and an unmanly evasion of re- 
sponsibility on the other, the people are in jeopardy of being over- 
ridden by a legal monster, paralelled only by the Eoman Inquisi- 
tion, by which their dearest civil rights are to be violated, the 
sanctity of home invaded, the pleasures and courtesies of social 
intercourse abridged, the citizen persecuted for opinion's sake, and 
hunted to his very fireside for evidences of his heresy, as were the 
Scottisli Covenanters to their«eaves, for their blood and their Bibles. 



CHAPTER IV. 

Constitutional Objections to the Liquor Bill. 

The principle of equal rights is distinctly recognized, and care- 
fully guarded, in the provisions both of our State and Federal Con- 
stitutions. It is not in accordance with the spirit of our institutions 
to legislate solely with reference to the good of a particular class, 
or to withhold privileges from one, which are, without preeminence 
of claim, extended to another. Special or class legislation not only 
renders government odious and burdensome, but defeats the end for 
which it was instituted. The right to use and traffic in alcoholic 
liquors, whether it be a privilege or otherwise, should not be made 
an exclusive one, and, if the Legislature of a State does not possess 
the constitutional power to restrict this right in all cases, and 
among all classes, it has no right to restrict it in those particular 
cases which fall within its jurisdiction. Although this bill pretends 
to regard all the express provisions of the Federal laws, it conflicts 
wholly with their spirit ; and, by stooping to the most pitiful eva- 
sion, it proscribes a portion of the community, who are within the 
reach of its arbitrary power, while the remainder are suffered to 
escape under the protection of a higher law. It assumes to do what 
it is impotent to do, but in particular cases, which form no excep- 
tion to the general principle in regard to the expediency or right of 
prohibition. 

The Federal laws authorize the importation and sale of ardent 
spirits and wines in certain quantities ; but, under all other cir- 
cumstances, this bill assumes the power of unconditional prohibition. 
Hence, imported liquors, in the original packages, may be bought 
and sold under its operation, while those of domestic production, 
even of the same quality and in the same quantity, can neither be 
bought, sold, or held as property. Thus, the products of foreign 
industry are poured into our market without restraint, while the 
like products of home industry are proscribed as contraband arti- 
cles, and are liable to be confiscated and destroyed, without remu- 
neration to the owner, wherever they may be detected. " But," say 
the friends of this measure, " we have prohibited the retail of these 
imported spirits, by the pint or the glass. 77 And this is the great 
objection to the passage of this bill — while it prohibits the sale of 
spirits in small quantities, it cannot prevent the sale of casks and 
packages, nor of wine imported in bottles, and is thus obnoxious to all 
the objections urged against the " Fifteen* Gallon Law. 77 It operates 
to the exclusion of the mass of the people from the privilege of traf- 
ficking in, and the luxury of using, such liquors, while those who 
can afford to import them, or purchase in specific quantities, may 
traffic or consume at pleasure. 



It not only makes this odious and senseless distinction between 
imported and domestic spirits, and is thus partial and unjust in its 
operation, hut it permits even the seizure and .destruction of the 
imported article, unless the holder shall prove (and by evidence other 
than the Custom House marks upon the casks or packages) the facts 
of its importation, and of its being contained in the original parcels. 
If he cannot do this, his property, that which the General Govern- 
ment has taxed and guarantied as property, is wrested from him and 
destroyed without remedy. (Private property cannot now be taken 
for public uses without full compensation, but, under this arbitrary 
law, such property may be taken for no use, and without recom- 
pense.) Upon the same principle, the government may, without 
proof on its part, dispute the title to all sorts of private property, 
and compel the holders to account for their rightful possession, other- 
wise it shall be forcibly taken from them. Are the people of Mas- 
sachusetts, or any other State, prepared for such interference with 
the rights of property ? 

Again, the bill expressly reserves the right to manufacture for 
export, in quantities not less than thirty gallons, (which is particu- 
larly gracious, since, under the Constitution, Congress possesses the 
sole power to regulate commerce with foreign nations and between 
the States, leaving the latter no authority whatever to interfere 
with exports,) so that, though our distillers cannot manufacture for 
home consumption, they may manufacture any quantity to send 
abroad ; we may reciprocally supply other States, while other States 
supply us ; we must not make drunkards within this Commonwealth, 
but we may make as many as possible among our fellow-citizens of 
neighboring States, and in foreign countries ; we may use alcohol 
for sacramental purposes at home, and missionary purposes abroad, 
and if the heathen will consume all we manufacture, we shall suffer 
nothing from abolishing the home market. 

Further, this bill makes the act of selling ardent spirits a crime, 
but attaches no criminality whatever to the act of drinking, and is, 
in this view, grossly partial and unjust. It makes an invidious dis- 
tinction in favor of the consumer, who is not only particeps criminis, 
but in reality princeps criminis, since he presents the strongest temp- 
tation to violate the law — the temptation of money. Now, the sale 
of alcohol can only be deemed a crime, on the ground that the use 
causes evil ; but if the use, which is the direct cause of evil, is not 
a crime, as the law presumes, then the sale can by no fair construc- 
tion be made a crime, and our Legislature has no right to punish it 
as such, unless it also punishes the use. It has no more right to 
organize a corps of spies and informers, to watch over the citizen's 
place of business, to see if he does not sell ardent spirits, than it 
has to set a guard over him at his meals, to see if he does not drink. 
" But," say the supporters of the law, " we need not make drinking 
a crime, for if we suppress the traffic there will be none to drink." 
We answer, neither if you suppress drinking will there be anv for 
2 



10 

sale. We repeat, therefore, that the law in this respect is invidious, 
and punishes the accessory to the evil as the principal, while the 
principal is wholly exculpated. 

Purther, it allows searches and arrests to he made, in shops and 
tents, on suspicion of intent to sell ardent spirits, which is a presump- 
tion of crime neither sustained hy reason nor common law. It 
allows officers to seize and hold property in custody, pending decis- 
ions under it, without giving "bonds for its security ; and if they 
choose to destroy the external proofs of its heing bona fide property 
under the Federal laws, or even to destroy the property itself, the 
owner has no legal remedy. As it cancels all debts predicated upon 
the illegal sale of spirits, it hence annuls all contracts and inter- 
change of commodities involving such sale, and thus interferes with 
the titles to all kinds of property, except real estate. While the sec- 
ond section of the law pretends to guaranty the right of export, in 
another section it makes the act of delivery on board any vessel or 
steamboat a proof of illicit sale, and the basis of prosecution — being 
hence inconsistent in itself, and in direct conflict with the supreme laws 
regulating commerce with foreign nations and between the States. 

The bill, as reported, requires excessive bonds, in cases of appeal 
from the primary decisions under it, before a Justice of the Peace, 
(not allowing even the alternative of commitment,) so as effectually 
to preclude the trial by jury, whenever the defendant is too poor or 
friendless to produce the required bail in twenty-four hours. It also 
disfranchises the citizen, by disqualifying him to serve as a juryman 
in cases arising under it, if, upon being interrogated as to his being 
himself a violator of the law, he shall admit the fact, or refuse to 
answer — a stretch of extra-judicial authority unheard of, andunpar- 
alelled in enormity, and which, if engrafted in principle in our judic- 
ial system, would, in all criminal cases, require the arraignment of 
the jury as violators of the law, before they would be qualified to try 
the criminal ! Though the first of these provisions of the bill has 
been essentially modified in the Senate, and the latter stricken out, 
it is quite probable that the champions of the Maine law in the 
House, who hold, with its champions in the Senate, that the more 
arbitrary and tyrannical the law can be made, the more efficient 
it will prove as a moral reform agent, will insist upon their restora- 
tion. 



CHAPTER V. 

The Principle of Compulsive Total Abstinence. 

We contend that the Maine liquor law is based upon a wrong 
principle, and violates the fundamental rights of the citizen, inas- 
much as it proscribes a custom which is neither conceded, nor can be 



11 

demonstrated, to be founded in error. It totally prohibits the man- 
ufacture and sale of alcoholic liquors as a beverage, and is there- 
fore based on the presumption that such drinks do not in any 
measure admit of harmless indulgence — that they are wholly 
pernicious, and should therefore be wholly prohibited. [And, even 
admitting the presumption to be correct, if it is conceded, as a 
sound principle of legislation, that the government may totally 
prohibit any article or custom, on the ground of its injury to 
public health and morals, then it becomes equally its duty to pro- 
hibit every pernicious article or indulgence, whether affecting the 
welfare of the body or mind, and whether pertaining to food, drink 
and raiment', or literature and religious faith — the following out of 
which principle must have the effect to prescribe legal rules for all 
the minutiae of taste and fashion.] 

But this presumption is far from being tenable by any process of 
demonstration ; and, as there are conflicting opinions in regard to 
it, we appeal to reason if this proscriptive legislation is not, contrary 
to the spirit of our institutions, taking every man's conscience into 
the keeping of the State. If there are but six individuals in the 
Commonwealth who can consume ardent spirits moderately, without 
physical or moral injury, (the contrary not being demonstrable) the 
government have certainly no right to prevent them from thus 
using it, or supplying it to each other, whatever may be its effect 
upon the rest of the community. No matter how small the minority 
whose rights are violated ; in infringing the rights of one, the rights 
of the whole people are sacrificed. Not even a solitary member of 
society, however insignificant, without actual crime, or criminal 
intent, can be shorn of his civil rights, in mitigation of any social 
evil, nor immolated as an offering upon the altar of the public weal. 
We do not deny that total abstinence is a virtue — that it is com- 
mendable, magnanimous, and patriotic, even in those who hold 
the mastery of their appetites. We glory in the success of the 
total abstinence cause, as its moral triumphs have been achieved 
by the Washingtonian advocates, and believe it a noble end when 
thus attained by noble means. But, in enforcing it by law, we not 
only fail to produce any genuine reform in society, but violate the 
plainest principles of civil liberty, guarantied by our constitutions — 
the right, in eating or drinking, to consult our own tastes and indi- 
vidual welfare ; the right, in morals, of being guided by our own 
consciences ; and the right to hold and transfer that which the Fed- 
eral laws recognize not only as property, but as merchandize. 

But let us inquire whether this presumption, embraced in the pro- 
posed law, that all alcoholic drinks are wholly pernicious, is ground- 
ed upon fact or imagination. True, it has been a matter of much 
scientific speculation among physiologists, who generally agree that 
pure alcohol, when taken into the stomach, is not assimilated from 
the circulating fluids, and contributes nothing to the nourishment of 
the system ; but this is equally true of many alimentive condi- 



12 

ments which are not actually pernicious, but often beneficial in their 
action, as correctives of the various bodily functions. But, throwing 
aside scientific abstractions and fine-spun theories, let us appeal to 
the test of experience and ocular demonstration for a solution of 
the problem. Shall we, for proof of this presumption, look to the 
sturdy New England farmer, who, perhaps, for half a century, has 
quaffed his mug of hard " old orchard" at every daily meal ? Does 
he, in body or mind, illustrate the baneful effects of alcohol ? Shall 
we observe the brawny Englishman, who tosses off his draught of 
" brown stout" at almost every mouthful of roast beef? Shall we 
appeal to the portly Bavarian, who philosophises alternately over his 
meerschaum and sparkling ale ? or, shall we visit the happy peasant 
on the vine-clad hills of France and Spain, and the luxuriant fields 
of Champagne and Burgundy, where, 

" Annual for him the grape, the rose renew 
The juice nectarian, and the fragrant dew 1 " 

What argument, from the banks of our own Connecticut to the 
classic banks of the Bhine, do we derive in favor of the presump- 
tion involved in this bill ? Is it not wholly presumption, and of 
the most unwarrantable description ? It was a saying of the an- 
cient Greeks, — "'£> oho) eanv alrj^ta," — in wine there is truth, — 
and, although this saying does not always hold good, in our 
time and country, while we have a pernicious substitute of rum and 
logwood imposed on us, yet, under a well regulated, and, if you 
will, severe system of licenses, these spurious and poisonous liquors, 
which in reality produce almost the sum total of the evils of intem- 
perance, may be entirely driven from the market, and the truth of 
the ancient proverb become once more verified. Indeed, we find but 
few cases of drunkenness which have originated from the moder- 
ate use of simple, unadulterated distilled spirits. If, then, this 
presumption is unfounded, what must be the effect of such a sump- 
tuary law? It treads upon forbidden ground, and inculcates a 
principle, which, if carried out, must surely overthrow both our 
civil and religious liberties. Are the people of Massachusetts pre- 
pared to follow out this principle of legislation in all its conse- 
quences? The question is but one of moral opinion, upon which 
the community are honestly divided. All erroneous opinions in re- 
gard to moral subjects are undoubtedly pernicious, but who shall 
say which opinion, in regard to this question, is erroneous ? Shall 
A, who thinks wine hurts him, pronounce B, who thinks wine does 
him good, a heretic? and, for this opinion's sake, shall A, being the 
strongest party, not only thus denounce B, but, if he refuses to ab- 
jure his opinions, despoil him of his rights, brand him as a criminal, 
and cast him out from society ? His principles are thought to be 
pernicious — so were thought to ht the principles of the Protestants 



13 

of the fifteenth century, in the days of the Beformation. We have 
an instinctive dread of proscription, and our hearts thrill with hor- 
ror as we look back upon the bloody records of religious intoler- 
ance and persecution. But now we would tread in the very foot- 
steps of the Holy Mother Church, we use her own arguments to 
sustain our cause, we arraign our fellow citizens for the selfsame 
offence — they are guilty of heresy — they differ from us in an im- 
portant doctrinal point — and we shall take but few steps in this 
path of bigotry and intolerance, before the same unhallowed zeal 
which consumed our fathers, will again erect the stake and enkindle 
the fires of persecution. Shall we not profit by the example of the 
Puritans, who, having escaped from religious persecution, became, 
in their turn, the vindictive persecutors of their weaker brethren? 
Shall we, instead of illustrating their virtues, go back to copy the 
dark shades of their character, and revive in principle that infamous 
code of blue-laws, which the progress of enlightened public senti- 
ment has almost swept from our statute books, and the results of 
which every true son of the Pilgrims would wish were expunged 
from our historic page ? We may make martyrs to the cause of 
total abstinence, by this bill, but never proselytes ; but if we do 
thus make martyrs, depend upon it, we, in our turn, shall be sacri- 
ficed, and the ruin of the temperance cause, with the blood of thou- 
sands, who will hence go down to the drunkard's grave, will be 
upon our heads. 

" But," say the friends of this bill, "moderate draughts deprave the 
appetite, and we shall never be able to subdue drunkenness until 
this moderate drinking is prohibited. " Admitting this to be true, 
still there is no principle of law or justice which authorizes the 
punishment or prohibition of an act which is not criminal in itself, 
on the presumption that it leads to crime. Jealousy and envy may 
lead to murder or suicide ; yet, neither he who indulges, nor he who 
excites these passions, is obnoxious to the law, unless the overt act 
of violence is committed. If the law is to suppress every tendency, 
and punish every act and appetite which leads to drunkenness, it 
must go back to take cognizance of first causes, and suppress, not 
only the manufacture and moderate use of alcohol, but the vegeta- 
ble products which spontaneously produce it, and punish the physi- 
cal and moral instincts which are gratified by its excitement. Dis- 
tilling must not only be abolished, but the laws of nature must be 
arrested ; molasses and grain must not be allowed to ferment, or 
they must also be prohibited. " Moderate drinking depraves the ap- 
petite, and leads to drunkenness " — so does avarice deprave the 
heart, and moderate gains lead to avarice, which has more victims, 
and produces more misery, than alcohol. The miser starves in the 
midst of his hoarded treasure, and the glutton dies of surfeit — are 
not these, also, subjects of legislation ? The unbridled passions of 
men engender strife, envy and hatred, which are demoralizing in 



14 

their influence, and lead a to crime — shall we thence establish a 
legal measure for our passions and affections ? 

When the rich man died — "and in hell he lifted up his eyes, 
"being in torments " — he besought father Abraham, who was afar off, 
(and between them there was a great gulf, so that he could not send 
him a " mammoth petition/') to send one from the dead, to warn 
his five other brethren against the danger of falling into those in- 
fernal flames ; but Abraham replied, that his brethren already had 
the warnings of Moses and the prophets, to shun his miserable 
doom, and if these were unheeded, still they would not believe 
though one should arise from the dead. So we would have the 
fathers of the Commonwealth reply to the petitioners for this law. 
Those who are in danger of becoming drunkards have the benefit 
of both precept and example ; they have illustration piled upon ar- 
gument, to guard them from excess ; and, if moral suasion will 
not prevent them from becoming sots, no laws which human inge- 
nuity can frame can save them from perdition. 



CHAPTER VI. 

The True Policy of Moral Reform. 

Numa Pompilius, the second king of Eome, who, like Cincinnatus, 
was called from retirement to exercise regal authority, and who prob- 
ably effected more than any other of her rulers in diffusing civiliza- 
tion and morality among the people of that barbaric age, held as a 
favorite maxim, that popular vice could best be suppressed by 
encouraging the cause of virtue ; and this principle he carried out, 
with the happiest effects, in all his civil policy. Though really an 
absolute monarch, he governed the turbulent Eomans not as a 
tyrant ; and, though a pagan, his devotion to what we style the 
Christian virtues and graces would have done honor to any prince of 
Christendom. His criminal code embraced only the gravest politi- 
cal offences, while his laws for the encouragement of private and 
social virtues were numerous, and based upon the moral and relig- 
ious sentiments of the people. He deified truth and honesty, and 
instituted the worship of the god Bona Fides, (or good faith,) and 
such was the salutary effect of this institution, that the Eoman citi- 
zen needed neither note nor bond to legalize his business obliga- 
tions ; he could traffic without danger of fraud, and expose his 
treasures without fear of plunder ; and, so great was the popular re- 
gard for truth, that, in cases of dispute or litigation, a mere ex parte 
examination, the testimony of either party, was reliable data for 
legal decisions. He first established territorial boundaries, which 



15 

were solemnly dedicated to the gods Termini, and such was the sanc- 
tity of a Boman landmark, even if but a stick or a stone, that the 
displeasure of the gods was sufficient to deter the most reckless from 
disturbing it. " Erect altars," said the heathen monarch, " to those 
virtues which carry us up to heaven, and fear not the infernal gods." 
His was a model government, worthy of modern imitation ; and who 
shall say his was not the " golden age ? " It was eminently a relig- 
ious age ; and if, in ages after, the Eomans became a licentious and 
intemperate people, it was because they lost that respect for virtue, 
and that reverence for religion, which gave place to the modern 
improvements in jurisprudence and theology; which substituted the 
scaffold, the gibbet and the dungeon, for promoting the ends of jus- 
tice, and the Inquisition, with its paraphernalia of torture, for attain- 
ing the aims of religion. 

Why is it, that in the progress of time, the moral improvement 
of society has not kept pace with the march of popular intelligence ? 
Why is it, that, while the great mind of the world has apparently 
arrived at such a degree of maturity, its morals still remain in lead- 
ing-strings, and the ponderous volume of its criminal code is still 
swelling with enactments for the repression or regulation of every 
human sense, appetite and passion ? Shall it be said that the pro- 
gress of civil liberty has multiplied penal laws ? Or is it because, that, 
while the mind of man is expansive, his moral nature is irreclaima- 
ble? The moral sentiment, as well as the mind, of every genera- 
tion is the same, and, but for false principles in social economy, 
public virtue would undoubtedly keep pace with public intelligence. 
Human nature, abstractly, can never be modified by human laws ; 
its instincts are immutable ; and would modern lawgivers, like 
Numa Pompilius, instead of endeavoring to reform human nature, 
be content to lead its current into true channels, and, instead of 
seeking merely to repress its morbid tendencies, should give its nat- 
ural functions full scope and healthy action, they would produce 
moral results worthy of an enlightened age. 

It is not our purpose to extenuate the evils of intemperance — 
they are too great to be easily exaggerated. But we wish to inves- 
tigate the radical cause of these evils, and to inquire if the total 
prohibition of intoxicating drinks is the proper remedy for them. 
Why do men drink alcoholic liquors to excess ? "To gratify a 
depraved appetite," will be the ready answer — or, more properly, 
from a temporary physical necessity for its stimulus. But this 
physical necessity is itself the result of inebriation, and drunken- 
ness, in its first stages, must be the result of wantonness, and is 
therefore properly regarded as a moral delinquency. But why do 
men drink moderately? From custom, prompted by those social 
feelings which are enhanced by it. The custom, then, has its foun- 
dation in those social qualities which are inherent in human nature, 
in that instinctive conviviality, which is heightened and strengthen- 
ed by alcohol, and which no laws, however penal, no discipline, how- 



16 

ever severe, can eradicate from the human breast. Its manifesta- 
tions are coextensive with the human race. All nations have their 
social stimulants — the Indian his council pipe, the Chinese his tea, 
the Turk his opium ; and, to seek to repress the convivial tendency 
of human nature in this channel, without opening to it other sources 
of healthful excitement, would be but a transition from one species 
of intemperance to another, or perhaps to many others, equally 
deplorable. It would be like lopping off' the twigs of a pernicious 
tree, while its roots remained vigorous and undisturbed ; or, like 
Hercules demolishing the hydra heads, which sprang out more fierce 
and terrible at every blow. 

There are, moreover, other influences than those of appetite or 
conviviality, (and more potent and extensive than the superficial 
observer might suppose) which lie at the foundations of intemper- 
ance. The public eye does not fathom the depths of the drunkard's 
heart, nor does the public ear take cognizance of his silent grief; 
but trace him in his most delicate relations, look into the bosom of 
his family, and, too often, you will find that the absence of that 
kindly influence which alone renders home attractive, and hallows 
its charmed circle, is the sad cause of his devious career. Such 
causes, neither legislation, nor hardly philanthropy, can reach ; and 
when you compel him to abstinence, what relief do you bring the 
sufferer ? 

An excellent illustration of this general principle is afforded in 
the answer of an emigrant, who was recently brought before one of 
our municipal courts, charged with gross inebriation. When asked if 
he had any plea to offer in his defence, he declared that he was by 
no means addicted to this habit ; that, in the old country, without 
incurring any expense, the common people could attend the races, 
cock-fights, dances, &c, which afforded them all necessary excite- 
ment ; " But, faith !" says the Hibernian, "here I can find nothing 
to do to amuse meself, sure, but jist to git dhrunk ! " Alas ! for 
ennui. European society, notwithstanding its defects and abuses, 
may be credited for some peculiar advantages in the way of cheap 
popular amusements, and this may account in some measure for its 
comparative exemption from the evils of intemperance, even in 
those districts where alcoholic drinks are the spontaneous and abun- 
dant product of the soil. Could these features be engrafted in 
American society, they would undoubtedly effect more in eradicat- 
ing intemperance, than legislation upon the subject ever did, or ever 
can do, to that great end. 



17 



CHAPTER VII. 

Operation of the Liquor Law in Maine. 

" Prove all things ; hold fast that which is good "—is a maxim 
as excellent in the mouth of a politician as that of an Apostle. 
True, experiments upon the body politic, trenching, as they are apt 
to do, upon the fundamental principles of liberty and popular rights, 
like quackery in the practice of medicine, are hazardous to its gen- 
eral welfare, and often leave the patient with a worse distemper than 
the malady they undertake to cure. This proposed legal compul- 
sion to total abstinence, as a theory, has long been talked of; its 
practicability has been discussed, though ably, yet not to a generally 
satisfactory conclusion. The experiment has been viewed with 
mingled anxiety and distrust. But, thanks to the sufferance of the 
good people of Maine, the experiment has at length been tried ; the 
power of legal suasion, in the operation of a strictly prohibitory law, 
has been fairly tested. The advocates of this bill, instead of answer- 
ing our objections to its glaring atrocities, point us to the State of 
Maine, and exultingly exclaim, " Lo, the triumphant success, the 
grand illustration of our scheme ! The thing works to a charm ; 
behold and believe ! " But when we look for this modern miracle, 
we perceive only an exhibition of political legerdemain; instead of 
ocular proofs of the efficacy of legal suasion, we find additional 
and overwhelming evidence of its absurdity and unfitness as applied 
to the cause of abstinence. 

As a law-abiding people, the citizens of Maine have ever present- 
ed a most happy example. Devoted to productive industry — indus- 
try, always patient — and the quiet pursuits of rural life, the popu- 
lar excitements, to which more densely-settled communities are 
prone, have rarely disturbed the placid bosom of " down-east " soci- 
ety. The people of that locality are proverbially amiable, and dis- 
tinguished for the social quality in Yankee parlance termed clever- 
ness; nothing less than an attempted excision of a large slice of 
their State territory, by John Bull, has of late years aroused in 
them a spirit of resistance. What, then, must have been the pro- 
vocation which has caused that forcible resistance to the laws and 
civil authorities, those specks of civil war and revolution, which we 
have been pained to witness, in carrying out the provisions of the 
Maine liquor law? They are provocations which cannot be duly 
estimated in the distance ; they must come home to our own doors 
and firesides, to be realized in all their bitterness and severity. 
They consist in the violation of those private rights which the Amer- 
ican people hold most sacred and dear — to establish which they have 
braved dangers and death, and to preserve which they will always 
3 



18 

struggle against tyranny, whether in the shape of a foreign or domes- 
tic foe. They consist, not only in an abridgment of constitutional 
rights, in regard to the possession of property, the pursuit of indus- 
try, the interchange of hospitality, and the gratification of taste and 
social feeling, hut in the imposition of a system of public espionage, 
as annoying to the observers as to the violators of law, and more 
odious and oppressive to the citizen than any like system ever 
invented by Austrian or Eussian despotism, for the detection and 
punishment of treason. It renders the citizen, both in his business 
transactions and his social intercourse, an object of foul suspicion ; 
it places his private mansion in the light of a presumptive criminal 
resort, and exposes even the sanctity of his domestic retirement, 
upon the most trivial pretences, to the intrusion and vulgar scrutiny 
of the minions of the law. 

But where will these evils end ? "Will a law, already failing of 
peaceful observance, and never approximating to a fulfilment of its 
ends, finally subdue opposition? Will the people of Maine ulti- 
mately yield up their rights and convictions, and, by tame submis- 
sion, put an end to the strife which has thus far marked its sanguin- 
ary operation ? "When this strife shall terminate, it will not end in 
the triumph of law, but in the triumph of public sentiment over 
law. It must continue until the law either is expunged from the 
statute-book, or stands there, like the vestiges of the defunct Puri- 
tan code of blue-laws among our own criminal statutes, as a relic 
of barbarism, a monument of the folly and bigotry of its projec- 
tors. Failing, as it has, to secure the respect of the intelligent pub- 
lic — violated, as it is, generally and with impunity, its demoralizing 
influence must extend to all the relations and institutions of society, 
and sap the very foundations of government. The reverence for 
the laws, with which the public mind is imbued, must depreciate 
with every breach of its provisions, and the most essential and 
wholesome statutes must ultimately share in the popular contempt 
for legislation which this has generated. 

Had all the violations of law and order, which have occurred in 
enforcing its observance, been caused by intemperance, what a fruit- 
ful theme of criticism would have been afforded to the agitators 
and fanatics who concocted the Maine liquor law ! What out- 
pourings of indignation, what bursts of eloquence, would have com- 
memorated the facts ! The day of doom might, perhaps, have heard 
the last of it, but our generation never would. But, what though 
these outrages were brought about by the operation of law, instead of 
intemperance, are they less to be deplored, or less demoralizing in their 
influence ? If the law produces strife, as well as intemperance, 
what advantage has the law over the vice which it prohibits ? The 
law is but substituting one evil for another, and is itself but one of 
the worst and most aggravated forms of intemperance. 

Let us now inquire how successfully this wondrous, labor-saving 
machine of moral reform has performed its functions, in abolishing 



19 

the sale and consumption of ardent spirits in the State of Maine. 
The school of the drunkard, its advocates tell us, (and which, for 
argument's sake, we will take for granted,) is not the low groggery, 
where tipplers " most do congregate/' but the luxurious drawing- 
room and the elegant sideboard, where the neophyte sips his social 
glass for fashion's sake, or good fellowship. But while, by this law, 
a few of the low groggeries have, perhaps, been swept out of exist- 
ence, (or, not actually out of existence, but merely driven from the 
face of day, into some subterranean rendezvous, where the spies of 
this modern Inquisition cannot penetrate,) the high places and 
strongholds of intemperance — the fashionable hotels and club- 
rooms — "the school of the drunkard" — remain unscathed by its 
besom of destruction, and the students and graduates of these flour- 
ishing institutions are every day growing more numerous under the 
operation of the law. What care they for spies and prohibitions? — 
these are but intended to put down the groggeries — " Let the 
galled jade wince — our withers are unwrung ! " 

The public bars of the hotels in Maine are, indeed, abolished ; 
but in their cellars is stored an abundance of the choicest liquors, 
ostensibly for culinary purposes, and their Epicurean guests, some 
of whom are remarkably fond of these agreeable condiments, are 
allowed to season their dishes according to their own taste. The 
writer has travelled extensively in the State of Maine, since the 
adoption of the liquor law, and his own observation, corroborated 
by the testimony of every eastern trader and traveller whom he has 
consulted, attests to the fact that intoxicating liquors are as readi- 
ly obtained, (except by suspected informers) and as extensively con- 
sumed, in all places where the article is usually procured, under 
the present prohibitory system, as when the traffic was unrestricted. 
The only perceptible difference in the order of things, is, that where 
formerly the traffic was open and undisguised, it is now clandestine ; 
that where there were then voluntary honest men, there are now 
involuntary knaves and hypocrites ; that those who formerly ab- 
stained from alcohol, now use it as a beverage, from sheer roguery, 
and those who formerly drank but moderately, now drink to excess, 
to show their contempt for the law. Every conceivable stratagem 
which human ingenuity can devise has been put in requisition to 
effect the sale of alcohol in defiance of the government. It is dealt 
out as camphene, served up as coffee, done up as confectionery, put 
up as medicine, perfumery and mineral water, and a hint has lately 
been thrown out in regard to the invention of a little domestic 
utensil, the cost of which is less than a dollar, by which, with a 
simple lamp and alembic, and a quantity of any kind of fermented 
liquid, any thirsty toper may distil alcohol enough in a few hours 
to keep him drunk for a whole week. The druggists of Maine, 
probably, more than any other class, have been instrumental in 
evading the liquor law ; the past year has been a season of har- 
vest to the knights of the mortar; drugs and medicines were never 



20 

in such demand, and many poor valetudinarians have apparently- 
subsisted on medicines alone. Their drugs, however, are generally 
quite harmless, and when made into tinctures, of ominous colors 
and occult names, are really "not bad to take. 77 A short time 
since, sundry casks of "rice 77 were shipped from Boston to a respec- 
table down-east firm, and arrived at their destination in safety ; but, 
on landing them at the pier, the Argus eyes of a police oflicer dis- 
covered a suspicious liquid oozing from one of them, and remarked 
that the rice must be damaged, as it was very "wet. 77 But a keen- 
scented wag suggested that perhaps the cask contained rice-pudding, 
cooked to order, and that this oozing liquid was the brandy-sauce 
with which it was to be served up. Upon this suggestion, the 
esurient official, who had not' dined, eagerly opened the cask, and 
found, to his disappointment, raw rice ; but, on fathoming the 
mystery still deeper, he hit upon a concentric cask of genuine 
" Kasteau Charruyer, 7 ' imbedded in the grain, and, upon making a 
similar experiment on the others, with a like result, they were all 
taken in custody by the authorities, who left the disconsolate im- 
porter merely his " pudding,' 7 without the "sauce. 77 

An intelligent citizen of Maine was asked, while recently in 
conversation respecting the operation of the liquor law, why the 
venders and consumers, in that State, were not more urgent and 
clamorous for the repeal of such an oppressive statute. He re- 
plied, "Because they can sell all they please, and buy all they 
want, in spite of the law. 77 But there is reaction in Maine, in refer- 
ence to this law, as the result of another popular election will de- 
monstrate. The people have had enough of the experiment, and 
are beginning to writhe under the yoke of despotic sway. Petitions 
are in circulation, and the press strikes boldly for its repeal. 

Notwithstanding these occasional seizures of spirits, the amount 
thus confiscated is but as a drop of the bucket, compared with 
that which passes securely to its destination, and is sold and con- 
sumed in spite of the vigilance of the government. The people of 
Maine, under this law, have become (and we say it with no feelings 
of disrespect for them) literally a community of smugglers ; and 
while, as we are assured by those who have the best means of informa- 
tion, the actual consumption, as a beverage, has not at all dimin- 
ished, the consumption for medicinal, mechanical and sacramental 
purposes, (whether "legitimate' 7 or not the reader can judge) 
has more than doubled — being, in the city of Portland alone, under 
Neal Dow 7 s dispensation, estimated at $20,000 worth. The profits of 
the trade have also been increased in the same proportion as the 
difficulty and hazards in carrying it on. The demand in the 
Boston market, from that quarter, has been materially increased 
since this law has been in operation, and the same is probably true 
in regard to other domestic markets frequented by eastern traders, 
while the importation of foreign spirits, under the protection of 
the Federal government, has received an unusual impulse. Hence, 



21 

not to mention the serious evils incident to and inseparable from the 
operation and enforcement of the liquor law, it has, at the least 
calculation, cost the State of Maine $100,000 more for ardent 
spirits, during the past year, than in any previous year when the 
traffic was unrestricted. So much for the glorious triumph of this 
ne plus ultra of fanaticism in Maine ! 



CHAPTER VIII. 

Pauperism and Crime — Operation of the Law as affecting the Inter- 
ests of Commerce and Productive Industry — The License System. 

It has been asserted and reiterated by those who have more zeal 
for total abstinence than they possess knowledge of the causes 
which affect the social conditions of men, that the intemperate use 
of alcohol is chargeable with nearly all the pauperism and crime 
with which society is afflicted. So far from this being true, we 
assert, (and have already shown in Chapter 6,) that the very con- 
verse of this proposition is nearer the truth — that pauperism, 
crime and misfortune, are strictly responsible for nearly all the ex- 
cess in the use of stimulating drinks. The criminal, who has lost 
his self-respect; the victim of seduction, who has lost her caste in 
society ; the poor man, who can afford no higher indulgence of his 
social and convivial propensities than the bar-room affords — all 
resort to the bottle, because society affords them no other alterna- 
tive; and when society prescribes sumptuary law to cure the 
malady of intemperance, we would say to it — "Physician, heal 
thyself!" First, endeavor by legislation to mitigate the condition 
of the poor, the unfortunate and the erring, and then you have done 
more to subdue intemperance than the framers of this law ever 
thought of doing, and have actually obviated the necessity of all 
legislation upon the subject, whether prohibitory or regulative. 
But the statistical philanthropist tells us, that out of so many pau- 
pers, in such a charitable institution, a large proportion were habit- 
ually intemperate, and jumps at the conclusion that they were re- 
duced to pauperism by this habit — whereas, the truth is, that, in 
most cases, the habit is but the result of their condition, and they 
were literally paupers before they became drunkards. What, then, 
has caused the rapid increase of pauperism in our community 
within the last half century? We answer — immigration — the 
influx of foreign, ready-made paupers — the victims not only of 
oppression and poverty, but of disease and imbecility. The pris- 
ons and almshouses of England and Ireland, periodically, when 
crowded to excess, vomit forth I heir loathsome horde, which is 
generously transported, at the government expense, to free-hearted, 
open-handed America, as a precious boon for our public guardian- 



22 

ship and our prison discipline. These are the foul materials which 
glut our public institutions ; but still the sin of causing all this 
human misery is laid at the door of intemperance, and its burden 
of guilt most wrongfully laid upon the shoulders of our fellow- 
citizens engaged in the manufacture and traffic in ardent spirits, 
whose occupations have really nothing more to do with it, nor in- 
deed half so much, as the ship-builders' who construct the vessels 
which bear them to our shores. True, some of these immigrants, 
(if they keep out of police custody long enough,) become drunkards 
among us ; in default of employment, they loiter about the Broad 
street groggeries, where a liquid, more vile and pernicious than the 
" weird sisters" ever concocted, is dealt out by the cent's worth, and 
produces not only drunkenness, but insanity. Under a system of 
licenses which should prevent such abuse, by confining the sale of 
spirits to respectable and responsible dealers, these infamous dens 
would be entirely swept out of existence. 

As to the causes of crime, however multifarious, pecuniary mo- 
tives are well known to be the principal. 

But, supposing we might, by the aid of penal statutes, entirely 
suppress the manufacture of ardent spirits as a beverage in this 
Commonwealth, how far would this step subserve the purposes to 
be attained by such legislation 7 In the first place, it could not. as 
we have shown, prevent the traffic in imported spirits, as author- 
ised by the Federal laws, and the importation would increase in 
proportion to the demand created by the deficiency of home pro- 
duction. What advantage do we gain by crushing the distilleries 
in our own State, when, not only the Old World (now only a ten 
days' passage distant from us) stands ready to supply us, but the 
States on our south, west and north, with their distilleries in full 
blast, have every facility to supply us with what we are forbidden 
to supply ourselves 1 Are the people of Massachusetts the gain- 
ers by such a policy ? If our distillers are allowed to manufacture 
spirits for mechanical and medicinal purposes only, they of course 
cannot compete with those, in other States, who supply them as a 
beverage also; while the business of the former is, to a great ex- 
tent, curtailed and crippled by this law, the business of the latter 
is vastly extended by it, in giving them the exclusive control of 
our own market. The distilleries of the Middle States at present 
manufacture an article (of damaged grain, and other partially de- 
cayed vegetables, more proper for nourishing the growth of vegeta- 
tion than for distilling,) which is cheaper than any made in Boston, 
and much viler than it is cheap. It is dealt out to immigrants in 
Broad street, and to abandoned characters in Ann street, where its 
damning qualities have obtained for it a well-known and signifi- 
cant soubriquet; and this pernicious article must supply the place, 
in our community, of that now distilled in Boston, from pure mo- 
lasses, provided the provisions of this law are carried into effect. 

But what must be the effect upon our trade, commerce and inter- 
nal prosperity, of prohibiting the manufacture of spirits in Massa- 



23 

chusetts ? In the first place, the domestic trade which now comes 
to us — for alcohol to be used in the arts and in medicine, among 
other things — will be diverted to New York, where it can obtain a 
complete assortment ; our trade with the West Indies, whose ports 
now afford an extensive market for many of our domestic manu- 
factures and agricultural products, in return for their molasses, 
(a large portion of which becomes sour on its way hither, and suit- 
able only for distilling) must be essentially diminished, or carried 
on through the medium of other domestic ports ; our capital must 
be diverted, as business forsakes us, into other channels, and seek 
investment in other States ; our industrial as well as commercial 
interests must suffer; real estate must depreciate in value, and the 
wonted activity and thrift of our towns and cities must give place 
to idleness and premature decay. So intimately is this branch of 
productive industry (employing a capital of many millions in our 
State) blended with the various interests of commerce, manufac- 
tures and agriculture, that it cannot be (and why should it be?) 
outlawed, without seriously affecting the prosperity of our whole 
community. 

But while we deny the right or expediency of unconditionally 
prohibiting the manufacture and sale of ardent spirits, for any pur- 
pose, we also admit the necessity of regulating the traffic in them 
as an article of beverage, in such a manner as to prevent abuses in 
the sale, as well as the equal necessity of providing against abuses 
in the consumption. As the latter abuse is not only the most fre- 
quent, but generally the most wanton, so it should be regarded by 
the laws as the most criminal, and punished with greater severity. 
If it is the right of individuals to drink alcoholic liquors, without 
abuse, (as we have endeavored to show) it is also the right of 
others to sell them ; but it is not the right. of any individual to 
injure himself or offend society by drunkenness. Hence, while 
selling alcoholic beverages is, under general circumstances, justifia- 
ble, and, with proper restrictions, should be tolerated, inebriation is, 
under all circumstances, a violation of the rights of societjr, and 
should be dealt with accordingly. 

In regulating the traffic in ardent spirits, there are several great 
advantages to be attained, as well as difficulties to be avoided. 
While we aim to confine the trade in responsible and conscientious 
hands, and to throw around it such guaranties as will secure the 
public health against the imposition of noxious drugs and spuri- 
ous mixtures, we must not create a monopoly, as this law does, by 
taking away from the poor man what it has not the power to deny 
to the rich. Licenses must be granted, not only with a view to 
public security, but with due regard to equal rights. Their prin- 
ciple should be general, like that of our Corporation Act, but strin- 
gent in its requirements of integrity and responsible conduct. In 
short, we need such a license law as shall require dealers to guar- 
anty the quality of their sales, give bonds for the quiet and orderly 
conduct of their business, be responsible for whatever inebriation 



24 

may occur upon their premises ; and, (as incidental abuses are 
liable to any license system, however carefully guarded,) such 
sums should be paid for licenses — to go into the county or town 
treasuries, as a reserved fund, to be applied to this specific purpose — 
as may be sufficient in the aggregate to relieve whatever pecuniary 
distresses may be caused directly by intemperance. 

Such a law, which should neither take away the prerogatives of 
the citizen, nor uphold him in abusing them, must prove the only 
effectual, as it is the only constitutional, code of legislation which 
can be adopted for promoting the ends of total abstinence. It is 
the mean between the two extremes of inaction and overaction; 
if we seek to do less good than may be attained by this rational 
medium, we do nothing ; but if we attempt to do more than this, 
by adopting the ultra and intemperate provisions of the Maine 
liquor law, we do worse than nothing — positive, unmitigated, 
incalculable evil. 



Erratum. — On the 10th page, in the 2d line, for "furnishes" read "punishes. 



